Four Years
by Dragonsmaidan
Summary: AU. They had been together in college. Rodney left Evan in the middle of the night four years ago. Now he sees him again in a hotel bar.


Of all the bars in in the big city Rodney McKay had walked into this one. It had been four years. No calls. No letters. Not even a note the night he left. Yet there he was dressed in a nice suit. Evan had seen him out of the corner of his eye. He would recognize Rodney anywhere. Even after all this time. Still felt the pull of Rodney's gravity the moment he walked into a room. Evan sighed and drained his drink and signaled for another one.

Rodney hadn't seen him in four years. Not since the night he left him. He looked as good as the day Rodney met him. _Why had he left again?_ Rodney started moving towards him without thinking. What was Evan doing here? He, Rodney, was here for a work conference he doubted Evan was at the hotel for the same. He reached the bar just as Evan received another drink.

"Rodney," he said without looking up and draining the dark amber liquid in one swallow.

"Evan." Rodney didn't know what to say. _He_ had left. He started to question his decision to come over. But if he was honest with himself he could never resist Evan when he was in a room. They had always been like magnets.

"What are you doing here?" Rodney asked.

Evan finally looked up. Blue eyes meeting. "I live here," he said blandly.

"I mean this hotel. Are you here for the conference?" Rodney hadn't seen him at any of the lectures or panels so far.

"No," Evan signaled for another drink. He suddenly didn't want to be here. He should have just gone to his regular bar, but he was supposed to be celebrating and had decided to class it up.

Rodney stood still waiting for Evan to continue. After a moment, when it was clear he wouldn't, Rodney tried again. "Can I sit?"

"It's a free country, Rodney, do what you want."

He sat down next to Evan. Evan downed his third drink. "I'm sorry."

There it was. Evan had been waiting for it. He sighed deeply. "Don't Rodney."

Rodney looked startled. He hadn't expected that response. "I am." He wanted Evan to understand. "I shouldn't have left. It was a mistake. I thought it would be better for both of us."

Evan tipped his head back and closed his eyes, mind flashing back, waking up alone and all of Rodney's things gone. The feelings of hurt and confusion rushing back. He really didn't want to be here.

"Look," he said. "I get it." He didn't, but he had always been the calm rational one in their relationship so he had to keep his cool for now. "You left for the sake of your career. I was just a dumb kid. We are almost the same age, but you've been ahead of me mentally since before we even met. As you told me often." Rodney winced. "Besides it been four years. It doesn't matter now."

Rodney thought it mattered a great deal. "I was wrong. I shouldn't have left." He said it again. Maybe if he said it enough he could take it back. "I should never had said that to you either. It isn't true. I should have called." Really he keep meaning too but he could never figure out what to say, so he didn't.

"What do you want, Rodney?" Evan said torn between irritation and exhaustion. Every second to him intensified all the feelings he's felt before. Feelings Evan had been trying to bury and forget about for fours years.

"Can we talk?"

"We are talking right now." He wasn't in the mood for games.

"Privately?"

Evan sighed again. This was probably a bad idea. He knew it, but he had never been able to say no to Rodney. "Let me pay my tab. I'll meet you in the lobby." He needed to collect himself. Brace himself for whatever was going to happen between them.

Rodney wanted to protest, he didn't want to let Evan out of his sight, but he didn't. He just nodded, stood and walked to the lobby.

"Let's go." Rodney looked up from where he had been staring at the floor. Some part of him had expected Evan to slip out just as he had their last night four years prior, but he should have known better. Evan was never a coward. Not like Rodney. Sure he said he left for both of them but on late nights hugging his pillow to his chest when he let his mind wander to the place he tried to keep carefully tucked away he knew better. He left because he was in too deep and he had to get out. Was afraid if he let himself stay he would give up everything he worked so hard in school for. Sure his heart was breaking into a million pieces, but this was better… for both of him.

"Where are we going?" he fell in step next to Evan, after a quick jog, he hadn't waited for Rodney after speaking.

"Gallery. It's just around the corner." Still those short sentences. They put Rodney on edge.

"Gallery?"

"Yes," Evan wasn't looking at him. He pulled a set of keys out of his pocket as he stopped in front of a modern looking building. "An art gallery." He opened the front door and punched in the alarm code.

Rodney looked around. It was a big open space. Pictures, painting, drawings and statues were everywhere. "You work here?"

It was a stupid question Rodney knew it. Evan locked the door behind them. "Yes. We are in the process of changing over to a new set of shows. We have the place to ourselves right now." He straighten some papers on a nearby table then leaned against it with his arms crossed defensively in front of him and stared at Rodney.

"What did you want to talk about?"

"Uh…," For all his genius Rodney hadn't thought that far ahead. "You work at an art gallery. That's different from geophysics."

"Well that ended up being a bust." Evan didn't want to talk about the time right after, he's been a mess, but he also knew Rodney was going to keep up awkward small talk until Evan just told him what he wanted to know. He in the chair at the desk and put his elbows on his knees.

"I applied to the Air Force Academy after graduation. Thought maybe that would bring me up to your level. That you left because I was so juvenile and if I could fix it you would come back. I was an idiot. I failed out in six months. So I decided to change everything. Packed up and moved here to try and make it as an artist."

Evan looked up. "Is that what you wanted to know? Are we done here?" He felt miserable, humiliated, weak, and exposed.. "You left. It broke my heart. I fell apart and now I'm here."

Rodney was frozen his mind racing. Air Force? Artist? What had he missed? "I didn't know."

"No shit." Evan looked away he was tired and just wanted to go home. He could forget he ever came across Rodney if he could just get home.

Rodney stepped closer. "Artist?"

"What?" Evan's head whipped back towards him.

"You said you were trying to make it as an artist. Are you, you know, making it?"

Evan thought back. He was. It had taken him a while. After the Air Force fiasco he'd moved and it had been a rough couple of months living out of his car and trying to sell his drawings in the park. Then he'd landed a job working security at an up and coming art gallery, then he had moved with them to a bigger location. He's switched positions to floor and sales when his boss found out Evan could fluently speak and understand art. He'd done that for a year and a half before becoming assistant manager.

"I am. I was actually at that bar celebrating tonight. I booked a show."

Rodney didn't know a lot about the art world but he knew that was a big deal. He always knew Evan could draw. He's seen his doodle and sketches when they were together but he also knew there was a huge difference between drawing and being and artist.

Evan continued speaking, he was more relaxed, he was comfortable with this topic. "My boss saw one of my drawings one day and was impressed. Wanted to see more and one thing led to another and he offered me a show."

Rodney took him in. Maybe he had done the right thing. Evan was clearly okay. "I should go." He turned to walk out shoulders hunched.

"Rodney wait!" Evan caught his wrist just as he reached the door. "If you are still in town on Friday come to my show."

Rodney stared at him, hope flaring in his chest.

"I'll put you on the VIP."

"I'll be there."

Rodney got dressed in his nice suit again. His conference had concluded the previous day but Rodney had phoned his boss and told him he was staying to check out the local offices.

A tall man in a black suit was at the door of the gallery when Rodney arrived. "Name?"

"Rodney McKay." 

The man consulted his list and stepped aside. "Back gallery space. South wing."

Rodney walked through the doors. The space looked different. There was soft lighting, classical music and a deep red carpet leading towards the back. He followed the carpet and stopped short when he reached the end. People were milling about drinking champagne. There was a table against one wall with small hor'dourves and cheeses and gorgeous art everywhere. Oil paintings, water colors, sketches, drawing, landscapes, still lifes. All of it Evan's.

Rodney wandered around the gallery entranced. Evan was amazing. How has he never noticed. He had almost made it to the last alcove when he heard a familiar voice.

"You made it." Rodney turned and saw Evan in a black suit bouncing nervously on the balls of his feet.

"I'm no art expert but Evan, these are incredible." He gestured to the nearest painting, which was of huge fountain in the middle of a park surrounded by people.

"Thanks. Have you seen everything?" He was watching Rodney closely.

"All but this." He gestured to the alcove

"I see I caught you just in time then. These are the ones that made my boss first interested. Some of them are a little older, but they are all very special to me."

He was clearly very nervous. Rodney walked into the space with Evan on his heels and his jaw dropped. Most of the pieces were just drawings with a few pops of color. But they were unmistakable to Rodney. All around him were drawings of himself, of their old apartment, their favorite spot on campus.

"I guess I could never let you go."

Rodney's chest tightened. He knew if he wanted Evan back, to fix whatever he had broken between them by leaving, this was his chance. It was now or never. "Is there anyway we could try again? Could I have a second chance?"

Evan opened his mouth to reply, but a man appeared and clapped him on the shoulder. "There you are, Evan! There are more people for you to meet. Come."

"Be right there." He looked at Rodney. "Meet me after the show we can grab a drink and see what happens."

It had been four years. Of all the bars in the big city Rodney McKay walked into this one. Evan turned the second he walked in his expression neutral as he signaled for another drink. He still felt the pull of Rodney's gravity. Even after all this time.

Rodney moved towards him without thinking. He reached the bar at the same time as the drink. "Evan."

"Rodney," he didn't look up but there was a ghost of a smile playing on his lips.

"Happy anniversary."


End file.
